Cyprus-Forum.com

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Friday, May 6, 2011
CENGİZ AKTAR

Heavy regional storms should not stop us seeing what is ahead. Last week Turkish Ambassador to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or TRNC, Halil İbrahim Akça ended a months-long discussion when he said: “85 percent of the budget goes to 32,000 civil servants and retirees. This needs to be reduced. With such a bulky state structure, it is impossible to maintain the economy. Politicians should consider paying the price of the economic package.”

General Secretary of the Turkish Cypriot Primary School Teachers’ Trade Union, or KTÖS, Şener Elçil, reacted in the following way: “Mr. Governor [ambassador] avoids seeing the realities in the north of the island and is trying to cover it up with various remarks and talks about a bulky structure, which is a segregationist structure built by themselves in the first place. Are you not the one who said, ‘Go for tourism or trade’ and not the one who closed Sanayi Industry Holding down, disassembled factories and moved them out? With the austerity package you have imposed on us while forcing the Turcocypriot youth to move out, you also have brought a crowd into the north and made Turcocypriots pay for employment, food, health, and education expenditures of this crowd. Have you not? And now, you are lecturing us. As we don’t have money for education, health and economy is it Turcocypriot’s making to build mosques or religious complexes more than schools in almost every town?”

Let’s also hear what the United Cyprus Party, or BKP, General Secretary İzzet İzcan said: “You will grant properties of Grecocypriots, the most beautiful land of our country and valuable assets of Turcocypriots to your cronies for nothing and transfer population to the north of the island and let Turcocypriots die out as you prevent a durable solution to the Cyprus dispute. You will take us hostage during the European Union membership process and use us as a trump-card to say, ‘I have strategic interests,’ then turn around and ask us to pay the price. Turkey’s real intention is to make the north of Cyprus a province of its own, increase the population to a million and bring another Hatay [Antioch] example into life.”

Either annexation or a federation

Pay attention to the relations between the de facto ruler of the TRNC, the governor/ambassador and Turcocypriots. In the old days, when talking about Cyprus, thr first thing that came to mind was endless peace talks between the Republic of Cyprus, or RC, in the south of the island and the TRNC up in the north. Later on, hostility between RC and Turkey has deepened in connection with Turkey’s EU membership and RC’s membership to international institutions. Things have gotten more complicated. Now we have a problem between Turkey and TRNC.

Let’s look at the calendar and see how the dead-lock cannot be eliminated if Turkey doesn’t make a move. There will be the House of Representatives elections held in the RC this month. Though the president’s role is essential, the election is quite critical in terms of future political balances. Another important date is the RC’s approaching EU term presidency due on July 1 2012. If normalization cannot be achieved by then, it means the already frozen Turkey-EU relations would be placed into the deep-freezer. In other words, it will not harm much. But there follows presidential elections in the RC in 2013.

Therefore, for any progress on Cyprus we have normally no more than a full year ahead for us after the June 12 general elections in Turkey. However, one of the actors says “enough” now: The U.N.. Even the most low profile U.N. secretary general since 1945, Ban Ki-moon, is fed up with Cyprus talks. His special envoy, Alexander Downer, has announced the deadline for peace talks as March 2012. Shortly and precisely, if there is not a noteworthy progress in the period July 2011-March 2012, the problem will deteriorate further. It may turn into an open crisis due to the antagonism between people of TRNC and Turkey, not to mention its consequences on the already clogged membership talks with the EU.

In this picture, the key is there: To pave the way for a “new federation” as Turkey’s solution formula for decades, to leave aside interim formulas such as the return of Maraş [Varocha] in exchange of direct trade regulation and to apply the “land in return for political equality” paradigm in peace talks between RC and TRNC. In fact, let’s recall that although progress has been made in political equality during the talks led by former president of TRNC Mehmet Ali Talat, there has been no progress regarding return of land and property.

The only alternative to this formula, if we set aside the dream of recognition of TRNC’s independence, is annexation of TRNC and its management will be ever more difficult in present conditions. But that is a costly alternative in every way. Turcocypriots turning into actors is probably a messenger of the final stage, forcing either a solution or a costly annexation.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php? ... 2011-05-06

[Sotos]

"Turcocypriots"? Is this a new term? Sounds more like how we call them

[denizaksulu]

"Turcocypriots"? Is this a new term? Sounds more like how we call them

I used that term long ago to differentiate between the Greek and Turkish speakers.

[repulsewarrior]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

[kurupetos]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

Hellene Cypriot & Ottoman Cypriot.

Sound even better.

[denizaksulu]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

Hellene Cypriot & Ottoman Cypriot.

Sound even better.

If you are going to be picky, all 'Hellens' are 'Ottoman'.

[kurupetos]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

Hellene Cypriot & Ottoman Cypriot.

Sound even better.

If you are going to be picky, all 'Hellens' are 'Ottoman'.

In that sense, all 'Ottomans' are dead.

[denizaksulu]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

Hellene Cypriot & Ottoman Cypriot.

Sound even better.

If you are going to be picky, all 'Hellens' are 'Ottoman'.

In that sense, all 'Ottomans' are dead.

At last you are seeing sense. Congratulations. That ofcourse means all 'Hellenes' are dead too. That leaves us with Greco-Cyps and Turco-Cyps and that is all that matters. In other words 'Cypriots'.

[kurupetos]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

Hellene Cypriot & Ottoman Cypriot.

Sound even better.

If you are going to be picky, all 'Hellens' are 'Ottoman'.

In that sense, all 'Ottomans' are dead.

At last you are seeing sense. Congratulations. That ofcourse means all 'Hellenes' are dead too. That leaves us with Greco-Cyps and Turco-Cyps and that is all that matters. In other words 'Cypriots'.

OK, you can call yourself as you wish. But I am a Hellene Cypriot.

BTW, do you know how the Norwegians call Greece & Cyprus? You would be surprised.

[denizaksulu]

grecocypriot/turcocypriot;...hmmmm, better than turcophone and grecophone.

thank-you.

Hellene Cypriot & Ottoman Cypriot.

Sound even better.

If you are going to be picky, all 'Hellens' are 'Ottoman'.

In that sense, all 'Ottomans' are dead.

At last you are seeing sense. Congratulations. That ofcourse means all 'Hellenes' are dead too. That leaves us with Greco-Cyps and Turco-Cyps and that is all that matters. In other words 'Cypriots'.

OK, you can call yourself as you wish. But I am a Hellene Cypriot.

BTW, do you know how the Norwegians call Greece & Cyprus? You would be surprised.

Who cares!!

Do you know what some Grec-Cyps call Greece?